Late trains signal £75m fines

NETWORK Rail faces record fines of up to £75million for failing to meet any punctuality targets last year.

361,000 commuter trains were cancelled or delayed by five minutes in England and Wales last year

Performance was so bad that 361,000 commuter trains in England and Wales were cancelled or more than five minutes late and 70,500 long distance services were either cancelled or more than 10 minutes late.

Meanwhile, Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Rail is taking legal action against the not-for-profit company to try to make it improve punctuality on the West Coast Main Line.

The threat of huge fines – which would effectively be paid by the taxpayer – comes after Network Rail announced that its top five managers would get bonuses totalling £350,000 on top of already generous salaries.

NR, which is paid £4billion a year from the state, also revealed this week that its Government-guaranteed debt had risen to £30billion.

The fines threat was issued by the Office of Rail Regulation in its performance review for 2012-13.

It said: “Network Rail missed all of its targets for the punctuality of passenger services in England and Wales in 2012-13.

“ORR is investigating whether Network Rail did everything reasonably practicable to deliver punctuality targets for passenger services in the long distance and London and South East sectors. The regulator has already specified a financial penalty should Network Rail miss punctuality commitments for long distance passenger services at the end of March 2014.”

The fines would be £1.5million for every 0.1 per cent below its 92 per cent punctuality target for 2013-14. Last year, punctuality on long distance trains was 87 per cent – which could lead to the £75million penalty.

An average rail season ticket costs £2,191, nearly 8% of the average UK salary

The challenge we have faced over the last year, and will continue to face in the years ahead, is one of success – more people wanting to use more trains, more of the time

Network Rail

ORR chief executive Richard Price said Network Rail contributed to railway success in the past year and said passengers in Scotland “enjoyed excellent levels of punctuality”.

But he said: “Levels of punctuality for passenger services in England and Wales remain below what Network Rail has been funded to achieve.

“The company has some catching up to do to get itself back on course by the time new and, in some areas, more stretching performance targets are introduced for 2014-19.”

A Network Rail spokesman said: “The challenge we have faced over the last year, and will continue to face in the years ahead, is one of success – more people wanting to use more trains, more of the time.

“However, the economic times mean that alongside delivering new capacity we need to keep a constant drive for improved efficiency.”